"If you want."

His grin faded. "I don't want."

"Then don't mention it."

Down in the furnace room, having spent the last few hours testing the binding, the intelligence in the pit rested. It would have been panting had it been breathing.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED, it observed sulkily.

Although physically contained, the pentagram could not entirely close it off from the world. There was just no way it was that easy.

It seeped through between the possibilities.

It tempted. It taunted. And once, because of the concentration trapped in that one spot, it had managed to squeeze through a sizable piece of pure irritation.

THE OLD MALE IS GONE.

THE YOUNG MALE IS STILL HERE.

The heat rose momentarily as though h.e.l.l itself had snorted. THAT GOODY TWO SHOES. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME.

THERE'S A NEW KEEPER.

WE'VE DEALT WITH KEEPERS BEFORE.

WE DIDN'T EXACTLY DEAL WITH THE OTHER. WASN'T SHE INTENDING TO CONTROL....

SHUT UP!.

It also talked to itself.

CHAPTER THREE.

If you don't hurry," Austin complained from the bedroom, "I'm going down to breakfast without you." Claire rummaged through her makeup case, inspecting and discarding a number of pencils that needed sharpening. "I'm moving as fast as I can."

They'd spent the night back in room one even though Dean had reiterated that the owner's rooms were now rightfully Claire's. Although willing to spend the evening watching television and eating pizza in Augustus Smythe's sitting room, Claire wasn't quite ready to sleep in his bed.

"I don't see why you bother with all that stuff."

"This from the cat who spent half an hour washing his tail." One eye closed, she leaned toward the mirror. Her reflection remained where it had been. "Oh, no." Straightening, she put down the pencil and looked herself in the eyes, not at all surprised to notice that they were no longer dark brown but deep red. "Now what?"

A skull, recently disinterred, appeared in the reflection's left hand. "Alas, poor Yorik. I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest."

"And oft times had you kissed those lips." Claire folded her arms and frowned. "I'm familiar with the play. Get to the point."

The reflection lifted the skull until it could gaze levelly into the eye sockets. "Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint her face an inch thick, to this favor she must come..." A fluid motion turned the skull so that it stared out from the mirror. "... make her laugh at that."

"Not bad, but I imagine you have access to a number of actors. Your point?"

"Open the pentagram. Release us. And we shall see to it that you remain young and beautiful forever."

"You're kidding, right? You're offering a Keeper eternal youth and beauty?"

The reflection looked a little sheepish. "It is considered a cla.s.sic temptation. We thought it worth a try."

"Oh, please."

"That means no?"

Claire sighed and, both hands holding the edge of the sink, leaned forward. "Go to h.e.l.l," she told it levelly. "Go directly to h.e.l.l, do not pa.s.s go, do not collect two hundred dollars."

The skull vanished. Her reflection began answering to her movements again.

"Was that wise?" Austin asked from the doorway.

"What? Refusing to be tempted?"

"Making flippant comments."

"It wasn't a flippant comment." She finished lining her right eye and began on her left. "It was a stage direction."

"h.e.l.lo!"

"Mom?" In the kitchen, using a number of household products in ways they'd never been intended by the manufacturers, not even the advertising department which, as a rule, had more liberal views about those sorts of things, Claire was attempting to remove the ink from the latter third of the site journal. While not technically an impossible task, it did seem to be, as time went on, highly improbable. Laying aside the garlic press, she dried her hands on a borrowed ap.r.o.n, borrowing it hadn't been her idea, called out that she'd be right there, and tripped over the cat.

By the time she reached the lobby, Austin was up on the counter, having his head scratched and looking as though he hadn't been waiting as impatiently as anyone.

"You're certainly right about those shields," Martha Hansen said, as Claire came into the lobby. "I can't feel a thing."

Catching Austin's eye, Claire mimed wiping her brow in relief. Austin looked superior; he'd had a bad feeling about it from the start. So there. "Thanks for coming, Mom."

"Well, I could hardly refuse my daughter's call for help, now could I? Besides, your sister's in the workshop today and it's your father's turn to deal with the fire department." The three of them winced in unison. "And it did seem a shame not to work in a quick visit with you so close. You're looking well." She wrapped Claire in a quick hug. "Maine must've agreed with you."

"I was in and out too fast for it to disagree with me. Easiest site I ever sealed."

"Good. At least you're not facing this site exhausted and cranky."

"Cranky?" Claire repeated, shooting a warning look at the cat. "Mom, I'm twenty-seven. I'm a little old for cranky."

Her mother smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. How did you sleep last night?"

"Like a log. I expect it's another effect of the dampening field."

"I expect it is." Unzipping her windbreaker, Martha turned back toward the counter. "What about you, Austin?"

"I slept like a cat." One ear flicked back. "I always sleep like a cat."

"That's very rea.s.suring. Any developments since you called, Claire?"